Las Vegas Cup, O’Reilly Auto Parts Series set for single-car qualifying Saturday
NXTbets Pro | Published On: September 30, 2026
Las Vegas weekend setup
The NASCAR Cup Series and the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series bring their Chase weekends to Las Vegas Motor Speedway, a 1.5-mile track, with a packed Saturday of qualifying, practice and racing around the same tight window. Both series will use single-car, single-lap qualifying, and both fields are set at 36 entries, so every driver will make the race. That gives Saturday’s qualifying sessions more about order than elimination, with the starting spots set by each series’ posted metric and the chase contenders spread throughout the lineups. The schedule puts the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series qualifying session first at 3:05 p.m. ET on ESPN Unlimited, followed by Cup Series qualifying at 5:35 p.m. ET on truTV. The day also includes O’Reilly Auto Parts Series practice at 2 p.m. ET and Cup Series practice at 4:30 p.m. ET on truTV before the on-track focus shifts to the races themselves. The Focused Health 302 goes off Saturday at 7:30 p.m. ET on The CW, while the South Point 400 follows Sunday at 5:30 p.m. ET on USA Network. The South Point 400 also streams on HBO Max and airs on PRN and SiriusXM, and the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race also carries on PRN and SiriusXM.
Cup Series qualifying order
Cody Ware opens Cup Series qualifying first after earning the top spot in the posted metric order with a 34.900 score, while Kyle Larson goes out last and is listed 36th with a 1.000 score. That spread sets up a qualifying session that mixes track-position hopes with the reality of a 36-car field where nobody misses the race. The lineup reflects the metric system used to sort the order, and it places key chase contenders across the qualifying sheet rather than clustering them at the front or back. That means the session at 5:35 p.m. ET on truTV matters for more than one reason. It determines the front of the field for Sunday’s South Point 400, and it gives teams one clean lap to deliver under the pressure of Las Vegas Motor Speedway’s 1.5-mile layout. Cup Series practice comes earlier at 4:30 p.m. ET on truTV, giving teams one last chance to tune for speed before qualifying. The weekend’s race, the South Point 400, lands Sunday at 5:30 p.m. ET on USA Network, with additional coverage on HBO Max, PRN and SiriusXM. The structure of the weekend makes the Cup side straightforward. Practice, qualifying and the race all stack into a short run of track time, and the qualifying order gives Ware the first shot at the clock while Larson waits until the end of the session.
O’Reilly Auto Parts qualifying order
Dawson Cram leads off O’Reilly Auto Parts Series qualifying first with a 37.300 metric score, and Sheldon Creed goes out last after being listed 36th with a 1.000 score. Like the Cup session, the field is full at 36 entries, so qualifying sorts the starting order without any pressure about making the race. The metric order again frames the session, and the chase contenders are mixed through the lineup rather than grouped in one place. That creates a busy Saturday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, where the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series gets its practice session at 2 p.m. ET before qualifying at 3:05 p.m. ET on ESPN Unlimited. The race itself, the Focused Health 302, follows at 7:30 p.m. ET on The CW. The broadcast setup keeps the series in a familiar weekend rhythm, with the race also available on PRN and SiriusXM. The result is a compact but meaningful day for the series. Cram gets the first run at the metric-based order, Creed waits for the final pass, and everyone in between gets one lap to shape the field for the evening race. With Las Vegas a 1.5-mile track and the qualifying format built around a single car and a single lap, the margin for error is small. That makes the order important even without any risk of missing the show, because every spot on the grid still carries weight for the rest of the weekend.
